[HANASHIR:15425] Re: Dealing with Fools

[Adrian Durlester <adrian...>]

For the record:

The archives of the hanashir list are not available to the general public,
but only to subscribers.

Telephone calls are more easily tapped and traced than e-mail. Phone scams
have been around a lot longer than e-mail scams. There is nothing inherently
safer or "less subject to misdirection" in telephone communication. And far
more criminals have been caught by wiretaps than by e-mail.

E-mail itself is not inherently risky. What is risky is the sloppy way in
which some people utilize it, and their failures to use common-sense methods
to keep it and their computers safe.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no virus that can actually resend a
message from within the e-mail store of your MUA (mail user application.)
Only if you have saved a message as an actual file outside the message store
can it be sent as an attachment. Viruses can obtain and utilize e-mail
addresses from your MUA's address book and use them to create spoofed "from"
adresses (which is why you might get a message that appears to be a response
to an e-mail you never actually sent.)

While I agree, in essence, with the intent of your comments, Roz, let's not
generalize too broadly in order to make the point. E-mail is no more
inherently unsafe than postal mail, telegrams, or telephone. Trust me, the
folks up in Langley, VA (CIA headquarters) can intercept and utilize any of
those equally well.

Yes, we should always be careful about the particulars we write about or
talk about. We pray: Elokai netzor l'shonei meira u'sfatei m'dabeir mirma --
Guard my tongue from evil and my lips from deceitful speech. It's not about
the medium we use to communicate. It's about what we say and how we say it.
Let's keep the focus there.

Respectfully,

Adrian

Adrian A. Durlester, MTS
E-mail: adrian (at) durlester(dot)com  www.durlester.com
Director of Education & Congregational Life, Bethesda Jewish Congregation,
Bethesda, MD
www.bethesdajewish.com
Co-Director, Hazamir/JTAI Choir of Greater DC
Past Conf Chair, CAJE 27, August 4-8, 2002, Trinity University, San Antonio,
TX
List Owner, hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org; Jewish Songleaders/Performers List
www.ehavanashira.org
Co-Owner, l-torah (at) shamash(dot)org; Liberal Torah Discussion List






-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-hanashir (at) 
shamash(dot)org] On
Behalf Of Ros Schwartz
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 12:01 AM
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject: [HANASHIR:15417] Re: Dealing with Fools


Here's a different angle on the "fools" issues.  To Edward:  I don't 
know how to resolve this problem, I am just raising it as an issue to be 
considered.

While I find this group an excellent resource to work out many many 
sorts of difficulty ... it makes me very nervous when too many personal 
details are included in a letter, which could clearly identify an 
individual.

I live about a three-hour drive from Edward Katz, and though I have 
never met him or his congregation, it's a small enough world that I 
could have.  And it's not impossible that his cantor - or even the 
conductor he describes - could one day sign on to Hanashir, search its 
archives, and find out exactly what Edward _really_ thinks.

Email is an extremely risky form of personal communication, because of 
its ease of misdirection, and its permanence on some people's servers or 
computers.

Three cautionary tales, about emailing personal info.

1.  I once wrote a long letter about person X, to person Y, in the 
middle of the night, when I was extremely tired.  In my sleepy state, 
when I went to fill in the address, I _almost_ clicked on person X 
instead of person Y.  Now there would have been a tale to be told!!!

2.  Another time - when I was more awake - person A emailed me about her 
concerns about person B.  This time I was extremely careful to be 
tactful in my reply ... which was lucky ... since person A then, in 
haste, left my comments attached at the end of her reply back to person B!

3.  Certain viruses pick out random files from your hard drive, and 
email them out to random addresses in your address book.  Someone I know 
had confidential email concerning their synagogue made public in this 
way, it was very unpleasant.

So ... now I try to be very careful of what I put into writing. 
Delicate matters, I prefer to handle by telephone, which is less subject 
to misunderstanding - less subject to misdirection - and much less 
permanent.

- Ros




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